First Event for 2008

The first event for 2008 is going to happen this weekend, and it's probably not what you think it might be.
Min is finishing her dive course this weekend. She did the classroom and pool sessions last weekend and she is off out into the wild blue for her first open water dives this weekend. It's a three night and three day live aboard trip to Wheeler Reef, Davies Reef and the Wreck of the Yongala. It should be an awesome trip, we are going out with Pro-dive the company that Ollie and Anika went out with when they were up here. Oh yes I suppose that I forgot to state that I will be tagging along for the ride.
This will be my first non-work dives in a long time. It will be good to get out and just relax look at things and not take the dive to seriously. My camera is not back from the shop yet (more on that later) grrrrr. So I will be borrowing a camera from someone at work. Hopefully a post on that soon with pickies.

Cheers L.

2007 a Year in Review

One of the interesting things that a blog gives you is a look into your year that has gone. It show easily what has happened and how you felt at the time. In a couple of years time I'll even be able to do a look at the decade that was.

2007 has been a fun year but a busy year. This is evidenced not in the abundance of posts this year but in the dearth of posts to come from me. Well I'll try to rectify that this year but it's already not looking good as I have just started working on another website over at Wordpress. It is the Maggie Island Outriggers Website. We'll see how the posting goes though.

I also didn't get around to participating in rogaines much this year. I did how ever venture out into the bush twice this past year and on one of those occasions I introduced a new person to the sport (Karina for those who are not regular readers). I had a more relaxed time though while rogaining and I never even really went out to push myself, Just get out there get a respectable total and see some of the amazing bush that you get to see with these events.

So you ask if I wasn't posting much here and I didn't participate extensively in Rogaines what was I doing all year that made it such a busy year. There is a twofold answer to this question and that is paddling and working. Work has been pretty full on this year with the centre increasing in size and the admin staff not changing in number. This means that my job has has about the same amount of research work but an increasing load of administrative work. I still enjoy working here and I have gotten to go to some very cool place in this last year but it is getting busier. Speaking of amazing new places and work, my work took me to Papua New Guinea last year and also to Heron Island. These were both fantastic trips and well worth the trip. It would be really interesting to spend more time in PNG but alas I am once again chained to the desk trying to help with the production of another Annual report.

Paddling well what can I say about that. I was more involved in the club in 2007 than I was in 2006. I became part of the committee and I managed to get the club some Marques through a government grant. I also trained harder than in 2006 and managed to get close to the Medal positions (we finished fourth in the last couple of regattas of the season). I'm set to be more involved again as I've put my hand up to be the club Secretary. The club is at a bit of a low point as there are fewer members in the club now than there has been at any time in the last 10 years. On the bright side though we have an enthusiastic committee and we have set up some things that could rapidly grow the club and also help it actually earn some money to be financially viable. More news on this later.

Anyway to 2008 what do I want to achieve this year. Well I have decided to loose a bit of weight. Well I'll probably put it on but I need to loose the fat around the mid section. I think that about 5kg of fat could go to bring me down to a nice healthy shape. My total weight has been changing continuously over the past two years and always in the same direction and that's up. I now weigh in at over 122 kg but I have acttually lost some of the fat on my body. Well I've decided that it's time that I loose the last of the fat. I think I need an aim to help me achieve this so I'm going to get fit and ready for the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic at the end of the year. Now I just need a paddling partner (Hey Glen didn't you say that you'd do it with me), oh yes and an OC2 to do it in, and a support crew (any volunteers). These are just minor details though to be sorted out later.

Lastly I hope everyones 2008 is a great an healthy year.

Cheers Lewis

Heron Island

So this is a Aerial shot of one of the more famous Island on the Great Barrier Reef

Heron Island

You can see the rather small Island on the left of the Screen surrounded by a cluster of dots. Those dots are photos of the island that people have put on Panoramio a photo sharing site linked to Google earth.

Anyway why am I showing you all this little piece of heaven you might ask? Well I’ve been on Heron Island for a field trip. I went there on the 1^st of November and got back on the 14^th of November. It was two weeks of boating and diving.

Hmmmmm diving I think I remember what that is it’s that activity where you go underwater and (in my case) work hard. I say this because I was the boat driver for the trip which means that I spent hours sitting on the boat waiting for my divers to come up from their dive. I did get to dive once and test out my regulators that I haven’t used since going to PNG. The gear worked well and I got to see some awesome patches of reef. There was a resident grouper called gus that was about 2m long and about 400 kilos. Also lots of Lion and Parrot fish. I will put some photo’s up on Picassa soon.

I’d never been to Heron (http://www.cms.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=54940) and it was an excellent opportunity to see the place and experience another (I think the last I haven’t been to on the GBR) research station. The station was huge but on this particular visit it was down to about 30% capacity. There was a fire a few months ago and the place is still in the process of recovering from that ordeal. (http://www.cms.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=68420). A lot of research and lab equipment went in the fire as well as all of the Laboratory and aquarium facilities. One weird thing though is that the Resort on Heron operates on daylight savings time all year round while the Research station operates on Queensland time all year round which does lead to some miscommunications between the two groups on the Island. Hard to get mad in a place like that though.

The Reefs around heron look to be in very good condition though. The prevalence of disease was at about 1 in 1000 colonies having an instance of some disease. No real bleaching to speak of and the water temperature hasn’t risen as sharply as it has in some of the more northerly reefs. Apparently there has been some instances of bleaching in areas such as Orpheus Island which is much further north and in an inshore environment. (go to Bleach watch http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/key_issues/climate_change/management_responses/bleach_watch2.html if you know of any bleaching occurring. If you want to see what the current conditions on the reef are at the moment you can go to and use the reeftemp tool developed by CSIRO - http://www.cmar.csiro.au/remotesensing/gbrmpa/ReefTemp_application.htm). Also the Coral cover is fairly high up to 90% in some places.

What did happen on heron though is that it got windy. for about 6 of the 12 days I was there, there was 20-30 knot winds with seas to 3m. Nasty conditions for a 6m fibreglass dingy. The time we did get out though were amazing. Blue water gentle breeze and a slight rocking from some gentle waves. Almost heaven.

Not bad work this if you can get it.

Cheers L

OC1 Regatta

I want to Thank Greg and Reece Tudehope for organising a great day. Also Thanks to Karen Bruce for time keeping all day and helping with the set-up. And probably the biggest thanks go to the two people who aren't even part of any paddling club but came along to help out on the day to make sure friends and family could race so thanks Viki and Melinda.
I think that most people had a good day and the racing was good natured and fun. Thanks to all the competitors and I hope to see you on the water again soon.
Now for some results I only went in one race due to me having some crazy type of sleeping sickness. I managed to come third though.

oc1 250m Course

Open Men
Pos Name Club Time
1st Reece Tudehope Mag-Is 1.11.73
2nd Andrew Mitchell Coral Sea 1.25.44
3rd Lewis Anderson Mag-Is 1.27.97

Oops did I forget to mention that there were only 3 people in my race. Still since it is my first ever OC1 race and only like my tenth time on an OC1 I did alright. And 1 minute and 27 seconds seems like ages when you have the flu.

Cheers

Three Sheets to the Wind

I was curious as to the origins of this saying. It seems to have started out being "Three sheets in the Wind". I found this explanation to be one of the best out there. All explanations had a similar story except a few who referred to Windmills which seems less likely than a nautical explanation.

From Mark Treadwell on .NET Hobbyist Programmer Forum

I guess it would be good to be precise here. Using a square-rigged sailing ship as a reference, a sheet is the line that is attached to the clew (the lower corners of each sail). The sails would be trimmed (adjusted) using the sheets to ensure they remained in the optimal position for the relative wind to generate the best ship's speed. The sheets attached to the courses (lowest and largest sails) had the most adjustment since the sheets (and hence the clews) of the upper sails would be attached to the yardarms below them. Each sail has two sheets. Sometimes the upper topsails and upper topgallant sails don't have sheets; their clews can be permanently fastened to the yardarms of the lower topsail/topgallant yards. For a relatively simple description of most of these terms with some pictures, see http://www.infa.abo.fi/~fredrik/sships/square-rigging.html.

With this as a basis, if a sailing ship's sheets have come loose, the affected course is likely to luff or flap loosely in the wind. The appearance of a ship with luffing sails is one of disarray. The slower a ship goes, the less control you have with the rudder. If you cannot control the ship, you are then at the mercy of the waves. In the worst case, the ship can end up broad or beam to the seas and rolling heavily and .

Hopefully, this explains it a little clearer.


Interesting huh!

Crazy Ideas

I received this little titbit in my ABC news mail and though Now this is a bit of a stupid Idea.

*Pay fat people to lose weight: doctors*

A doctors group has proposed that overweight people be given a $170 subsidy to attend an accredited weight-loss program.

The idea is part of a Federal election wish-list released by the Australian General Practice Network.

The network's Dr Tony Hobbs says the proposal would help address Australia's obesity problem by making it easier for people in lower-income brackets to get help.

"We believe that this will go a long way to helping people get access to accredited weight loss programs where the people will be supported," he said.

"They'll have goals set, they will be expected to come back at the end of the 12-week program and be measured to see whether or not they've been able to succeed with their weight loss program."


So What they want to do is encourage people to get fat then loose weight. Repeatedly!! I know lets increase the burden that overweight people already place on Society. This money that is meant to make the programs more affordable will just make them more popular and then they can raise there fees. Meaning that this handout will just be given to companies and people in an industry that is already more than a little dodgy if you ask me.

If you want to help the community and decrease the incidents of obesity then increase the funding to local community sporting groups and run a campaign where you get a free health check up when you are a member of a local sporting group. This Idea has been thought up on the spot and would probably not work but at least it benefits the whole community and increases participation in sport, increases the activity of the community and provides some regular check-ups for people who are trying to do something for themselves. It's not just providing a handout for fat people who are just not very active.

I am not against overweight people I have the ability to gain weight very easily it's in the Anderson genes. I have however taken up several activities that promote weight loss. long distance sports such as mountain or road biking and Outrigger Canoeing for the upper body. There are sports and activities out there for anyone. So lets encourage activity rather than supporting the Diet industry by throwing wasted money at them.

Look if you agree with me please email the AMA and the Federal Government. Please be polite in any email sent to these addresses. If you don't agree with please leave a comment and explain why. If you have suggestion on a better Idea than mine please leave them in comments as well (I did say mine might not work).

Cheers

APEC

I don't understand why so many people feel the need to protest at the APEC summit. It's a trade summit which is not in itself a bad thing. In fact many of the aims of the group are very admiral. The aims are to promote liberal trade, reduce corruption and set out guideline for greater transparency of Business operations. These are good things weather your in Australia, the US or any of the other countries in the Pacific rim.

The scope of the group as stated on their website is:

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) works in three broad areas to meet the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies.

Known as APEC's 'Three Pillars', APEC focuses on three key areas:

• Trade and Investment Liberalisation
• Business Facilitation
• Economic and Technical Cooperation

The outcomes of these three areas enable APEC Member Economies to strengthen their economies by pooling resources within the region and achieving efficiencies. Tangible benefits are also delivered to consumers in the APEC region through increased training and employment opportunities, greater choices in the marketplace, cheaper goods and services and improved access to international markets.

Trade and Investment Liberalisation
Trade and Investment Liberalisation reduces and eventually eliminates tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment. Protectionism is expensive because it raises prices for goods and services. Thus, Trade and Investment Liberation focuses on opening markets to increase trade and investment among economies, resulting in economic growth for APEC Member Economies and increased standard of living for all.

Business Facilitation
Business Facilitation focuses on reducing the costs of business transactions, improving access to trade information and aligning policy and business strategies to facilitate growth, and free and open trade. Essentially, Business Facilitation helps importers and exporters in Asia Pacific meet and conduct business more efficiently, thus reducing costs of production and leading to increased trade, cheaper goods and services and more employment opportunities due to an expanded economy.

Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH)
ECOTECH is dedicated to providing training and cooperation to build capacities in all APEC Member Economies to take advantage of global trade and the New Economy. This area builds capacity at the institutional and personal level to assist APEC Member Economies and its people gain the necessary skills to meet their economic potential.


None of this is evil or bad the are just trying to promote development and co-operation between the countries to benefit all of the countries involved.

Most of the protest don't seem to be aimed at APEC itself though. Most protests seem to be aimed at the president of the US. Fair enough his government has not been good for the US or many other places in the world, and it certainly hasn't been good for the international reputation of the US and it's citizens. Maybe we could leave these protest for another time though. A time when he's involved in something evil like taking over a small island nation.

Australians though have more pressing issues to protest about. We have issues that affect us directly such as the Industrial relations system that our government has brought in,he fact that this Australian Government has increased the Gap between rich and poor the highest levels ever and seems to ignore any way to rectify this, or the lack of any coherent and defined stance on climate change from the government.

John Howard has realised that he has left the issue of Climate change to long and now is trying to subvert important international events such as this APEC meeting to show how active he is on this issue. Quite rightly the Chinese President put him in his place and said that the UN was the best forum for anything more than an understanding that climate change is important.

So people please leave the APEC summit alone and concentrate on the problems facing and issues that directly affect the day to day happenings in this country. That way maybe the NSW government and police will not have the nessecary impetus to enact draconian laws and security measures.

I encourage everyone to take an interest in what is discussed in Forums such as APEC but please try not to hinder organisations that might actually do some good. There is already huge amounts of evidence that we need sustainable development in poorer countries to improve the living conditions of the people and take away to root causes of huge Social and Environmental problems.

Paddle

So I received my Birthday present yesterday. For my birthday Min got me a new Paddle. It's a Xylo Blade again. This time though it is a P2 shape 52 x 18 x 9.25 inches. It has the brown turtle material on the back. It is one of the prettiest paddles I've seen. I'll have to post photo's soon.
Thanks Min.

Time for some Levity

Some one sent me this Joke recently. I think it's a crack-up.

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world.

Those that understand binary.
And those that don't.


Ha!

We're One Step Closer to Wireless Electricity

Awesome. I found this on Wired News:

Ugh, what I wouldn't do to rid my house of the snake-like electrical cords coming out of my computer monitor, external drive, laptop, stereo, TV, etc. I'm tired of getting my office chair tangled up with the mess under my desk! Well, my wish for wireless electricity may not be too far off. Researchers at M.I.T. have successfully transmitted enough power across a room to light a 60-watt bulb. They've christened their technique, WiTricity.

According to Leader-Post:

The MIT design consists of two copper coils. One, attached to the power source, is the sending unit. Rather than send out electromagnetic waves, it fills the space around it with a magnetic field oscillating at a particular frequency. The second copper coil is designed to resonate with that oscillating magnetic field. A copper coil within an oscillating magnetic field generates a current, enough, in MIT's case, to power a light bulb.

Power transformers make use of something similar, called magnetic induction, to transmit power between coils over short distances. But those coils aren't designed to resonate with each other. Resonant coupling makes the transfer of energy almost a million times more efficient.

Since the magnetic field doesn't radiate, most of the power that isn't picked up by the receiving unit is bound to the originating coil, rather than being lost into the environment. That also means that this system has a limited range, and the smaller the receiver, the smaller that range is.

I wonder how safe living in a magnetic field is?